Puttin' thru the floating markets
Trip Start
Feb 19, 2011
1
28
62
Trip End
Aug 29, 2011
Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Our two day trip of the Mekong Delta with Sinh Travel had us taking a two hour bus trip to Ben Tre followed by a boat trip past villages built on the shores of the Mekong. As we kicked back enjoying not spending they day walking for once we got a good idea of how vital the river is to village life here. There were people washing their clothes, saucepans, woks and even themselves as we putted along. It felt a bit weird to be watching someone taking their bath as we cruised past with camera's at the ready. They didn't seem to care though! We had a couple of stops, the first at a brick factory (as exciting as it sounds - although they did have some live frogs hanging up by their legs waiting to be cooked up for lunch) and a coconut candy 'factory' (three women extracting the juice, creating the candy then packing it). You will not be suprised to hear that Dave bought a pack after eating his body weight in the free samples. We then got into canoes which were paddled by vietnamese ladies and stopped for a lunch of elephant fish and shrimp soup. We spent the night in Can Tho with the others on the tour which included an italian 'foodie' who is travelling the world writing articles for a food review magazine. He had spent three weeks in Vietnam already getting to know all the local fruits and foods and got us trying some of the exotic (and quite weird) fruits in the markets.
The second day we took a boat to the Cai Rang floating market to watch local traders buying and selling fruits, vegetables, meats and even lottery tickets. We just had to have the obligatory pineapple bought from one of the boats and cut up on the spot. mmmmmm so fresh. Before heading back to Ho Chi Minh we stopped at a fruit garden growing pineapples, mango, dragon fruits and lots of other weird fruit. Lunch was at a restaurant near the market in Vinh Long. Our mates got us to try one of their favourites - Pho Ba (Soup with beef) and my god its good. We had dinner in Bill Clinton's old hangout (he apparently ate their on his visit, and now they have photos of him EVERYWHERE) with them in Ho Chi Minh before going to 'Fannys' - a fantastic ice cream shop. While we were there two girls came in with some cute little pygmys. The babies were soooooo cute and could fit in your palm and the mum was bearly 20cm long. We couldn't work out how to smuggle them into aus so gave them back reluctantly.
